All posts for the month April, 2012

I have about finished Thor’s 2 goats, Tanngrisni and Tanngnost. Only have to paint the horns, or give them a wash with brown acrylic paint, and paint the eyes. I will do that part once they’re hanging in front of the chariot to pinpoint the direction they look at.

Some time ago I saved a part of a jacket that was being thrown out, always thought I could use it for ‘something’. This is what I have used for the hair on the goats.

What I like about this is that it has a variation of the neutral colors and it has some black in there.

First I made some flocking for the parts that doesn’t have the long hair, like the head and the legs.

For the longer hair, I’ve cut it off like you would do with Tibetan Lamb wool for a wig and then I glued the longer hair on the body in overlapping sections, starting on the back. It still needs to be ‘styled’ though. I’d like to hang them suspended in the air in front of the chariot and make the hair flowing back to give the illusion of movement.

On the picture showing the top of the goats you can see the parting on the back, where I have glued the hair against the direction of the flow and folded it over to hide the glue line. The piece of wood is there to hold them upright since their feet aren’t all touching the ground.

As for Thor himself, he needs his hands to be attached and his feet still need to be sculpted but I first need to make the chariot to see how they will stand on there.

Something entirely different: Kender (our Chocolate Labrador) is growing so fast and keeps on growing! She is almost 10 months now and she doesn’t look anything like the little puppy we brought home

Smokey checking out Kender, who is 6 weeks in this picture.

Kender sleeping on the couch, 6 weeks old

Kender almost 10 months old, all laid out and sleeping on the couch. She sees the green pillow as a toy, hence the corner being chewed off. Where did that small, square headed, blue-eyed dog go?

After a week of working on all sort of things, like Blue Dragonflies for a swap I joined in our clay group, this is where I am now with my Thor sculpt.

I have sculpted the upper part of the body, attached the head and gave it a first bake. When it had cooled I attached the tubes for the arm and leg modules with Magic Sculpt and let it dry overnight. Now I have to make the hands and feet, bake them and attach them to finish the body. Looking at it I am not really sure if the head is too small? Still have to work on the neck too and that will show if I have to rip the head off again and redo that part 🙂

These are the frames for Tanngrisni and Tanngnost, the two goats who will be pulling Thor’s chariot. The bottom one is already filled out with aluminum foil and painters tape, the top ones shows the wire before bulking it out.

And here are Tanngrisni and Tanngnost, the wire covered with Prosculpt and baked. What I need to do now is paint the hooves and horns, put hair on them which will also cover up where I didn’t put enough clay on the frame, and when it is all done and ready to go in front of the chariot I’ll paint the eyes on.

I’ve been busy getting ready for a show so I didn’t have a lot of time to sculpt on my Thor, eventhough my fingers were itching to start. Collected most of what I think I will need: got a piece of bark for the chariot to stand on, found wood to make the chariot with, found an old piece of a coat (collar) that had faux ‘wool’ on it that would be great for the goats since it is rather long.

Found and collected all sort of other things I think I might need, or not, so I picked it up again for a bit and made the drawing couple of days ago. After that I made the frame and started on the head.

I have to apologize for the bad quality of the pictures. My camera stopped working, tried my phone but that one froze so I had to open it up to remove the battery and somewhere along the line I must have messed up the contact point for the camera because that one doesn’t want to work at all… I’ll re-open that when I have the time.

The tubes are cut but having a little problem there with keep getting confused as to what goes in where… Since it isn’t going to be a tall sculpt, only about 5′-5.5″, there won’t be a lot of pressure on the joints and I could leave the whole tube-idea out too, except for the legs; it is easier to attach the legs to the chariot using the whole tube system.

I can tell I haven’t done it in a while because I really have to pay attention that the head isn’t going to be too large for the frame. It looks okay for now but I have the feeling I have to make a new frame, just a bit larger than the one I have now which would be okay because I can always use this frame for another sculpt.

The bulking out of the frame is done with aluminum foil and painters tape although the chest needs to be larger, as you can see on the side view of the picture above. However, I can do that with clay too.

This is the first time I am using ProSculpt and I have to say I like it. It is really smooth, easy to condition, and it blends in great! Compared to other polymer clay brands like Sculpey, Fimo and Premo that I have used before for small(er) sculptures, it is softer, more pliable, and I have to say that I am sold on this one 🙂

Still have to make the chariot sketch and found some ideas online; it is going to be like the chariot in the example I’ll use and posted on March 30th so I might ‘wing it’ and make it straight from that example after the sculpt is complete. Then I only have to measure twice and cut once.

Here is where I am at this moment. Have to attach the ears and then the head will go for the first bake and see how it will look on this frame that I have now. Hope you like it so far!